This report is a flexible summary, with the aim of sharing and highlighting a wide range of data and policy information relating to London general practice published in a given week. Where we view information to be of significant interest it is reproduced directly below the links to make the key points quicker to digest.
Please feel free to share any useful stats/links you think we could include in future reports.
Official bodies
NHS Digital
- All recent data releases can be seen here.
- Guidance: Cover note: primary care networks: Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service from October 2024 [3/10].
- News: NHS kicks off COVID and flu jabs to protect against ‘tripledemic’ [3/10].
- News: Thousands more people with type 1 diabetes to get artificial pancreas in NHS roll out [30/9].
UK Health Security Agency
- Press release: Trial to let women use breast diagnostic clinics through NHS App [4/10].
- Research: GP out-of-hours syndromic surveillance: weekly bulletins for 2024 [3/10].
- Press release: 18,000 flu-related deaths in past 2 winters as jab uptake falls [30/9].
Policy, think tanks, charities and representative bodies
The Health Foundation
- 300,000 people leave the workforce and report ill health annually [3/10].
- Analysis shows that each year around 300,000 people aged 16–64 have left the workforce and report having a work-limiting health condition. Once out of the workforce, these individuals are nearly three times less likely to return to employment than those in good health.
Nuffield Trust
- Professional culture wars in maternity care: we should focus on shared values, not differing beliefs [4/10].
- The CQC’s recent national review of maternity services describes how toxic interprofessional cultures are impacting on quality of care. Multiple inquiries have found that poor multidisciplinary teamwork during childbirth causes delays in emergency intervention, as well as birth trauma, with recommended change slow to come.
- Lord Darzi’s recent report on the wider NHS, which describes the “succession of scandals and subsequent inquiries into maternal care”, suggested that deeper conversations may need to be had on issues such as culture in maternity services.
The King’s Fund
- Tackling waiting lists and getting people back to work: is it a good idea to multitask? [3/10].
- In his speech to the Labour Party conference in September, Wes Streeting announced a new waiting list initiative. The initiative involves deploying specialized clinical teams to hospitals in areas with high numbers of people off work due to illness.
General Medical Council
- 2024 healthcare regulators whistleblowing report published [30/9]
- The report shows that, between April 2023 and March this year, 60 concerns were raised with the GMC by whistleblowers, up from 48 in the previous year. In 2021/22 the number was 62.
- Of the 60 concerns raised, 23 were by doctors, 14 by other healthcare professionals and 23 were anonymous.
London Trusts
St George’s University
- Article:Next phase of ABC programme to reduce brain injuries at birth commence [7/10].
- Article:Ultrasound helps administer blood transfusions to sickle cell patients [30/9].
King’s College Hospital
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
- Article: NHS blood samples to be delivered by drones in London first [30/9].
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University
- Article:Jabs for women to protect newborns from virus [2/10].